Harriet turned slowly away, and so Mr. Hamlin lost his chance to set matters straight.

Just before he went out the door, he called back to his daughter: 

“Oh, Harriet, I have left the key to my strong box on my study table.  Don’t forget to put it away for me; it is most important that you do so, for I really have not time to turn back.”

During the entire evening Peter Dillon devoted himself exclusively to Harriet, and Bab was vastly relieved that he did not approach her.  She decided that he fully understood that she did not consider the pledge of the faded rose-bud, binding.  Mrs. Wilson had apparently forgotten Bab’s refusal of her request.  She was as cordial to Barbara as she was to Harriet, or to any of the “Automobile Girls.”

It was after midnight when Mrs. Wilson told Elmer and Peter that they must both go home.  Bab’s envelope was still tucked inside her dress.  She had had no chance so far to give it to Mrs. Wilson.  After Peter and Elmer had gone, however, and the girls trooped upstairs to bed, laughing and chatting gayly, Bab found a chance to slip the troublesome envelope into Mrs. Wilson’s hand.  With a whispered, “In the envelope is a check for the money I borrowed.  I thank you so much for your kindness,” Bab ran down the hall to her own room, feeling more at ease in her mind than she had since Mollie’s confession.

As for Harriet, she was so fully occupied with her guests that her father’s command to secure the key of his strong box, which he had left on his study table, slipped from her mind and she retired without giving the matter a second thought.

CHAPTER XVII

THE WHITE VEIL

Long after every one had retired Ruth Stuart lay wide awake.  Try as she might, sleep refused to visit her eyelids.  At last, after she had counted innumerable sheep and was wider awake than ever, she resolved to go and waken Bab.  Ruth moved about in the dark carefully, in order not to arouse Grace, with whom she roomed, found her dressing-gown and slippers, and tip-toed softly into Barbara’s room.  She knew that Barbara would not resent being awakened even at that unseasonable hour.

“Barbara, are you awake?” she whispered, coming up to Bab’s bed and laying a gentle hand on her friend’s face.  “I want to talk with you and I am so thirsty.  Won’t you come downstairs with me to get a drink of water?”

Bab turned over sleepily and yawned:  “Isn’t there always some water in the hall, Ruth?  I am so tired I can’t wake up,” she declared.

But Ruth gave her another shake.  Barbara crawled slowly out of bed, while Ruth found her bedroom slippers and wrapped her in her warm bathrobe.  Then both girls stole softly out into the dark hall.

At the head of the stairs there was a broad landing.  On this landing, just under a stained glass window, there was a leather couch and a table, which always held a pitcher of drinking water.  On the window ledge the servants were required to keep a candle, so that anyone who wished to do so might find his way downstairs at night, without difficulty.